Sunday, September 23, 2007

There's a riot going on

The Summer was quite uneventful when it came to major purchases, in fact I hardly bought anything at all. Normally Summertime is when my spending increases because I'm home from work and get to be on-line more (yes even more) and let's not forget there are bargains to be had during this period.

Lots of people sell off their excess stuff at lower prices because they need money to go visit all the cons. And last but not least, a of of people are on holiday, away from the computer or just outside more and there are less bidders for stuff on eBay. But like I said, I didn't buy a lot of books this Summer, but what I forgot to mention is that I did spend a lot of money this Summer...just not on comics

Ever since the punch in the stomach I got from my AF15 splitting I have taken a step back from collecting, this happens to me about once a year and never seems to last, but this time it lasted three months.I just wasn't interested in hunting down books or looking at auctions. And I certainly wasn't about to spend even more money, not knowing what my AF15's fate was. So I turned to the side-street of comic collecting and picked up where I left about four years ago. I started buying original art again.

Back in 2003 I bought a John Buscema page with Doom/Superman/Spider-man and a Dave Cockrum Cover recreation of X-men 145 (Doom holding Storm). I was planning to collect Silver and Bronze Age pages featuring the good Doctor, with the crowning piece a nice Kirby Doom-FF battle page.But at the time I was also very busy completing the Marvel Superhero titles and you can only stretch a dollar that much. I did check eBay every week for a nice vintage Doom page, but the pickings were slim and when I did spot something I liked it was a bit too expensive for me.

The art collecting kinda drifted to the background, but has now resurfaced. The sad news is that due to the increase in price (even in the last few years) a Kirby FF/Doom page will probably be out of my league for a while....we're talking $5000 just for a starter page. The good news is that I've decided not to concentrate on Doom and only Doom any more.I'm going for published Marvel Superhero art up till around 1985 with the emphasis on Doom, Captain America and Hulk pages.But if I find a page from a later date which I like (a Sean Phillips Zombie Doom ) I won't turn it down.

I've bought a few pages this month to start me off, and this is the first one I'd like to share.

It's a Sal Buscema splash, majestically showing Captain America going fist-first into a full blown race-riot.Can't get more dramatic than this.

I decided not to frame my art, but to keep it in a special portfolio, secured next to the comic page with some info attached.